Thunderstorms bring torrential downpours

28 June 2012 - As expected some big thunderstorms continue to develop across a large swathe of the UK this afternoon.

As expected some big thunderstorms continue to develop across a large swathe of the UK this afternoon. Areas at risk include central and northern England, the eastern part of Wales, Northern Ireland, and southern and eastern Scotland.

The technology used by the Met Office means that predicting the likelihood of thunderstorms has improved in recent years. However, it's still difficult to say more than an hour or two in advance exactly which towns or villages might be affected and when.

Nick Grahame, Met Office Operations Centre Manager said: "We are keeping a very close eye on the thunderstorms as they develop. By their very nature, by no means everyone will see a thunderstorm but a few places will see a lot of rain in a short space of time. Our advisors are providing frequent updates to the emergency services around the country and are in regular contact with the organisers of the Olympic Torch Relay in the East Midlands."

Some of our technology is now available to you through new pages on the Met Office website. You can watch the thunderstorms develop by looking at the new observations pages and selecting the lightning and rainfall buttons.

By running sequences, zooming in and moving around the map you can see the thunder cells begin as small dots on the screen and grow into large brightly coloured echoes.

This video of satellite imagery shows how the thunderstorms have developed and moved across the UK during today. The crosses show where lightning has occurred.